Figiefa - Automotive Altermarket Distributors

At the occasion of the FIGIEFA/SDCM Congress 2011 held in Warsaw on the 29th of September 2011, Mr. Philippe Jean, Head of the Automotive Unit at DG Enterprise & Industry has clarified the Commission's interpretation of the access to Repair and Maintenance Information (RMI) provisions of the recently adopted Regulation 566/2011.

The 220 participants gathered for this important event co-organised by FIGIEFA and its Polish member association SDCM under the auspices of the Polish ministry for economy had the opportunity to listen to Mr jean's first official speech on the adoption of the Regulation.

Mr Jean's speech, entitled "The European Commission's recent Automotive Legislation and the future Work Programme affecting the European Aftermarket", contained a number of crucial clarifications on the question of access to technical information, notably in relation to parts information data.

From the European Commission's perspective, the legislation has conferred a right, upon all independent operators on the value chain, to have access to Repair and Maintenance Information (RMI) thus clarifying that this right is not limited to immediate repair. This is justified because the competitiveness of repairers and the aftermarket as a whole depend to a large extent on the existence and functioning of other independent actors who provide a broad range of products and services.

In this context, Mr Jean re-emphasised that vehicle component information, i.e. the complete data on the original equipment parts of individual vehicles identified by their vehicle identification numbers (VIN), are clearly part of Repair and Maintenance Information. He articulated the Commission's view on the form in which this information, as defined by the Regulation 566/2011, should be provided.  He reiterated that a "database" is a clearly defined term in the European Database Directive (EC) 96/9 and underlined that access to vehicle manufacturers' vehicle component data should be granted in a way that allows independent operators to either incorporate vehicle manufacturers' component information into their multi-brand IT applications or to establish remote access to a respective vehicle manufacturer's database. Importantly, he further stressed that these data should be made available in a manner that will, in a practical way, allow them to be processed. Thereby, the Commission has made an important interpretation to the Regulation 566/2011.

This speech - first delivered at the FIGIEFA-SDCM Congress 2011 -  is considered as a landmark on the road towards efficient access to RMI including the clear identification of spare parts, for the independent multi-brand automotive aftermarket. The text of the speech, which has subsequently been delivered at other confrerences, can be found on the European Commission's website on the following page:

http://ec.europa.eu/enterprise/sectors/automotive/files/rmi/speech_clepa_en.pdf

FIGIEFA, very active for the past 24 months on this key issue for the automotive aftermarket, welcomes the observations of the European Commission as presented by Mr Jean and will continue actively monitor in the coming months the application of the text in practice at market operators' level.

For further information, please contact Jean-Ludovic Basset at the FIGIEFA Secretariat on +32 2 761 95 10 or log on to www.figiefa.eu.